We’re telling them it’s okay to show bias to someone who does not perform their roles in society the way we deem appropriate. We’re teaching them to stereotype groups and leading them down the road of prejudice even though we think we’re just protecting them. (qtd. in Slaughter, “5 Ways Parents” n. pag.)
Some parents make the slightest remarks that can lead their kids into having a prejudice mindset, and they do not even realize they are doing so. There are some parents who assure they, themselves, do not expose their kids to racism and even teach them the opposite of prejudice, but sometimes that is not even …show more content…
Kids are always going to be exposed to racism no matter how their parents raised them because, “It is impossible for anyone to have been brought up in the United States without having been influenced by racist attitudes and practices. Parents should not blame themselves but rather accept that fact’’ (qtd. in Alvy, “Teaching Tolerance” n. pag.). Parents have to further their actions and realize even if they are not teaching their kids prejudice thoughts, that their kids are going to hear them at school, from friends, teachers, the news, books, and almost everywhere their kids go. The lynchings in Duluth are just one local example of how kids could be exposed to racism. The lynchings in Duluth was an unfair trial of 3 innocent black men in the 1920’s, with an end result of 3 black men being lynched. After the 3 men were dead, “a mob estimated at 5,000 to 10,000”, crowded around the lamppost the men were hung at, and the ones who were close enough smiled (“Duluth’s Shameful Past” n. pag.). The men were not smiling just to smile, or just because they were happy the 3 men were dead; they were all smiling at a camera. That picture taken with the mob posing with the 3 dead black men, was later sold as a souvenir postcard. Kids exposed to this postcard would automatically assume the blacks did something wrong because